Red Hood's fox
by Redzik
Summary: Red Hood slowly approached the lump of fur on the ground. Now, that he could take his time to take the animal in, he realized that it wasn't a dog or a cat but a fox. What a fox was doing on Gotham streets? Rated T for swearing.
1. Jason's POV

Red Hood's blood boiled as the pained yelps and barks turned into pitiful whimpers. The thugs laughed at the poor animal they were tormenting, unaware of their doom descending from a rooftop of one of the buildings in an alley. Red Hood made a quick but thorough work on them. He hated any kind of abusers and he barely stopped himself from killing them. The time would be better spend on helping the dog.

Red Hood slowly approached the lump of fur on the ground. Now, that he could take his time to take the animal in, he realized that it wasn't a dog or a cat but a fox. What a fox was doing on Gotham streets? Did it escaped zoo or wandered this far looking for food? It was breathing hard, but stayed still. It's hind leg was stretched and matted with blood.

"Hey there, little guy," Red Hood said softly.

The fox raised to lay on it's belly and whined as he tried to crawl closer to Jason, jostling the injured leg.

"Easy, easy," Red Hood soothed, crouching down and taking a closer look.

The leg had a deep scratches on the meaty part, worsened by whatever those pieces of crap lying unconscious did.

The fox raised higher and started licking Red Hood's helmet enthusiastically.

Well, who would have thought? Jason never met a wild animal this friendly.

"Let's get you some help, hm?" Red Hood decided. He carefully put his hands under the fox and lifted, minding the injured leg.

The fox squirmed with a whine to a more comfortable position and buried it's snout in Jason's armpit. It warmed Jason's heart to have the animal trust him this quickly. Maybe it was domesticated and wandered off from his home? Anyhow that was good, it wouldn't cause much problems for him in getting it to the vet.

He was just a few blocks away from the vet clinic he used to bring wounded animals to. Nobody blinked an eye anymore when Red Hood showed up with another patient. So was this time too. He was instantly ushered into the room where he lied the fox on an examination table. The vet on duty snapped his latex gloves on and proceed to examine the injured leg.

"It looks like he was bitten and he pulled his leg away when the teeth were still in," the vet decided.

"He?" Red Hood questioned.

"Yes, it's a he," the vet turned away to rummage through several drawers. "He needs stitches. He's lucky it's not that deep or didn't tear anything important, but it got dirty and further bruised up so he needs to be under observation for an infection."

"I see," Red Hood hummed, stroking the soft fur. "So you expect me to take him in?"

"Yes," the vet replied. "We're full, thanks to you. Besides having a fox here will disturb our other patients."

The fox tensed when the vet came back with a syringe and tried to get away from the shot. Red Hood held it down, while it whimpered and tried to wriggle free before slumping as the drugs took effect.

"It's going to be fine, little guy," Red Hood said to the fox. He sat down on the side while the vet got to work.

Half an hour later Red Hood was lugging a cage with a sleeping fox inside his apartment. The little fucker was heavy despite it's lithe form and the size of the cage didn't help in maneuvering it without jostling the sleeping animal.

Eventually Jason managed to situate the cage on some towels in the obscured corner of his living room. He checked the wrapping on fox's leg and went to sleep. Only to be woken up by the ruckus of cries and growls and rattling of the cage.

Jason got up with a groan and hurried to his living room where fox was making a mess from his cozy corner.

"Hey, hey," Jason knelt down to the panicking animal. "Easy, it's okay."

The fox paused in it's struggling and looked at him with a glare from behind the bars.

Jason blinked. Huh, foxes could glare?

"You didn't hurt yourself, did you?" he asked, trying to peer at the leg. The wrapping was laying in a corner of the cage, but the vet said it was okay as long as the fox didn't chew the stitches out. Jason put his fingers through the holes in the cage to take it away least the fox decided it was tasty, but the animal growled and snapped it's teeth.

"Not so friendly anymore, huh?" Jason observed.

The fox grumbled and hit the empty bowl with his front paw, panting.

"You want water?" Jason sighed and got up to get some water.

The fox watched him go and come back patiently.

Jason sat down before the cage and used a spoon to bring the bowl closer to the bars. He wasn't risking his fingers, thank you. Then he stuck the funnel through the side of the cage and started pouring water.

The fox stared at him in utter judgment.

"Here," Red Hood said as he finished. "Fresh tasty water. Now be quiet. I have noisy neighbors and don't need them to come here asking questions." With that he went back to sleep.

He was late for work. So much late. Jason shot up from his bed and scrambled to get dressed, cleaned up and fed almost all at once. His alarm didn't go off for some reason and he overslept. He was almost ready in record time, even for a Bat and he made a mental record of that fact to brag about. Jason jammed a slice of bread into his mouth to free his hands for putting on his jacket and slid his feet into his shoes. He made three steeps, was almost out of the door, when he felt something was wrong. His feet felt wet and like he stepped on something squishy inside the boots. And there were wet footprints on his floor.

"Oh fuck, ew!" Jason grimaced, kicking his shoes off immediately. He gingerly lifted them and sniffed. Yup, definitely a urine.

He growled and stomped back further into his apartment, slamming the door shut. He marched into the living room and was greeted by a sight of the fox curled up on his couch he missed earlier in his haste. The animal was glaring defiantly at him from over his fluffy tail.

"You fucker!" Jason gritted out. The fox flickered his tail disinterestedly. Jason took a breath to launch into a rant but he caught a glimpse of the clock. He was sooo late. "I don't have time for this now," Jason pointed at the fox, "but this isn't over yet!"

Red Hood hurried to get new socks, wash his feet and find a second pair of shoes while the fox lied and watched him rush around. Jason was definitely seeing things, because foxes couldn't be smug, could they?

Jason came back a few hours later than usual and found the fox was sitting in the corridor, looking up at him hopefully. He felt a pang of guilt. He forgot to lay out some food and fresh water before he left. And he didn't even want to think what the fox used as a bathroom for the whole day. And how the hell did it got out of the cage in the first place?

The fox got up and came closer to him. Jason froze with shopping bags still in his hands. But the animal didn't attack him. Only tangled itself between his legs, fawning and purring like an oversized cat.

Jason let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, kicking off his shoes and making his way to the kitchen. "You're hungry. I get it."

He was glad he went shopping and got some animal friendly food. He prepared a bowl and set it on the floor before the fox.

The fox sniffed at it disdainfully for a minute then took a small bite. And promptly spewed it out, coughing and spitting. It's adorably disgusted face and tongue clucking made Jason chuckle. The fox glared at him and left the kitchen.

Jason was still laughing when he heard a stream of water. It took him a second to piece what it meant and he rushed out of the kitchen to see the fox walking away from his second pair of sodden shoes.

"You're a fucking asshole, you know," he called after the fox. "A real dick."

The fox stopped and turned it's head to look at him.

"Yeah!" Jason crowed. "That will be your name now. Dick! Get used to that!"

The fox flickered his tail at him and went to curl up on the couch.

Jason won the fox over by giving him pieces of cooked chicken. In no time the fox was happily sprawled over his lap, begging to be petted. It even relocated to sleeping on his bed, Jason discovered after he came back from patrol. He tried to take the fox back to the couch, if not the cage, but it growled when he tried to move it, so Jason let it be.

It was barely dawn when Jason was woken by hushed voices in his living room. He muffled his groan with a pillow and tired to get back to sleep. It was too early to deal with the Bat brood. It was a lost cause as Dick the fox started growling from his curled up position next to Jason's head.

"What!" Jason barked as soon as Tim made an appearance in the door to his bedroom.

"We need your help-" Tim stopped as he spied the fox and slumped in relief. "Oh, you found him."

"What?" Damian elbowed Tim aside and barreled into the room. "Grayson! Why didn't you come back? Titus didn't mean to hurt you."

The fox snorted.

Jason turned to look incredulously at the animal. The fox stared back with a fucking grin on it's face.

"What?" he asked dumbly.

"Dick got turned into a fox," Tim explained, while Damian was attempting to entice Dick to come closer to him. "Titus bit him and Dick ran away. We were looking for him ever since."

"That's Dick?!" Jason made sure. At Tim's nod he swiveled to glare at the fox, who perked up. "You fucker! You're a dead meat!"

Dick pounced happily on him and started licking Jason's face.

"Aw, no!" Jason yelled as he tried to fend off the animal. "Ew, get off me! Dick!"


	2. Dick's POV

Dick raced through the Wayne grounds headless of the cries calling him back. All he could hear over his frantically beating heart were soft steps and pants of the beast chasing after him. He was imagining it, he knew that the dog was long gone, but the instinct pushed him to ignore the pain and to run and hide from the danger. So he ran, until his left hind leg gave under him. He yelped in pain as he crashed on the ground, just resting for a moment. Then he gathered enough courage to see what damage Titus managed to do.

It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't bad either. He curled toward his leg and was about to lick the blood from the wound, when he came to his senses and cringed in disgust. Ew.

Dick sighed and looked around. In his panic he managed to get to the edge of the City. It would be better if he just went to one of the safe houses all of the Bats were keeping around. They probably were already searching for him and it was a good chance they will check all of the safe houses. Besides it was far closer than going back to the manor in his state.

Dick checked his surroundings again to gain his bearing and pinpoint the nearest safe place for him to lay low and wait for help. Then he climbed to his feet… paws, and limped into the city.

He sneaked through the alleys like a ghost, not wanting to draw attention to himself. He managed that fine at first. But then the city got more cramped, more lit with lamps and his luck ran out just a few streets away from the safe house.

One of the three men saw him trying limp past them unnoticed and alerted his companions with a laugh, pointing at him.

Dick whimpered and quickened his pace. In the next second a pain in his leg exploded, blinding him temporary. He yowled in pain in his sudden agony, unsuccessful trying to get at the source of his pain, but not completely managing it.

The thugs laughed and one of them threw another stone at him. He missed, but the next one hit Dick in the side. He yelped again and fell on his side, paralyzed by the pain whining pitifully. This was it. He was going to die, because some thugs decided to abuse poor animal on the streets.

And Red Hood descended on the men like an avenging angel and Dick was so relieved, that he swore to not give Jason any lectures about him killing for a solid month. Wait, no. Jason stopped killing a while ago. So he needed to think of something else. Something nice. Yes. He would think on it when he wasn't in pain anymore.

Red Hood came closer and Dick forced himself up, but he still was too far away so Dick started to crawl towards him. It jostled his leg and he whined from pain. It was enough for Jason to lean over him and examine his wound.

Dick took the opportunity to show his appreciation for his rescue and raised himself to reach Red Hood's face. Helmet. Whatever. He couldn't kiss him, so he licked Jason all over instead.

Jason seemed amused by this, but Dick didn't care. Jason mentioned help and took him into his arms. Strong, warm, safe arms. Dick ducked his head under Jason's arm, where it felt the warmest and safest and endured the jarring footsteps as Red Hood carried him all the way to the vet's clinic.

There he suffered though the indignation of being talked about over his head although he didn't bother to do something about it. Jason was stroking his fur gently and he didn't think something so simple could be so calming. And then came the vet with a syringe and any semblance of peace Dick had evaporated. They couldn't give him drugs! There was no way to tell what it would do to him in this body! He had to get away!

Strong hands pressed him down on the table he was lied on. No, no, no! Jason! He should understand, that they couldn't do that! Not to him! He wasn't a normal animal! If something went wrong, he could die! Little Wing…

Black.

Dick came to lying on a piece of rag that did little to soften the hard edges of something digging into his soft belly. He smelt water right under his nose and, parched, he licked the bowl clean. Thirst assuaged for the moment, he took in his surroundings. Even in the dark he could make the edges of a metal cage he was in. Oh no. No. No. No. He was supposed to be with Jason! Jason! Where was he?! Why wasn't he with Jason?! Jason!

The lights came on and Jason was kneeling in front of the cage.

The momentary relief was quickly swept away with more anger. His. Little. Wing. _Locked._ _Him._ _ **In. The. Cage!**_ Dick gave Jason the deadliest glare he could muster.

Jason busied himself with fussing over him and Dick growled and snapped his teeth at him, still incensed. He wanted out of that cage. Now!

He hit the empty bowl and exaggerated his panting to let the man know he was thirsty. Jason got the clue and went for water. Dick waited patiently for him to get back and open the cage to pour him more water. He will use this opportunity to escape his metal prison.

But Jason apparently had other plans. He pulled the bowl to the edge with a spoon and stuck the funnel through the cage to let the water fill the bowl.

Dick stared at him in incredulity and mounting frustration. Oh, his Little Wing was going to pay for all of that.

Jason went back to sleep, but Dick kept quiet. He didn't want someone to come and take him away. But he couldn't just sit in the cage either. Dick waited some time to be sure Jason really was sleeping and started to work on getting the cage open.

It took a few frustrating hours, maneuvering with paws and snout was difficult, but Dick finally managed to unlatch the doors. He crawled out and stretched, lazily looking around. The place was clean and had nothing immediately accessible for Dick to get his revenge on. Besides he couldn't risk making a noise. He thought what to do as he familiarized himself with the apartment. It was nice. Nicer than his own. Maybe he will move in after he'll get back to normal. God knows Jason could use a company. And Dick was an excellent company.

Dick's ears perked up as he got an idea. He slowly crept to the bedroom and nudged the doors to open more.

Jason was sprawled over the bed, dead to the world. Beside the bed was a small drawer with a phone and digital clock. Perfect.

Carefully Dick made his way over and examined the clock. The cord lead to the outlet in the corner. Dick eyed the plug contemplatively. Chew the cable through? Yeah, no. He wasn't killing himself just to mess with Jason. Yank the cable out? Might make a lot of noise. Dick sighed quietly and resolved to use his newly acquired dexterity to pull the plug out. The numbers on the clock flickered out. Smugly, Dick marched out of the bedroom and to Jason's boots. All that water and stress made Dick want to pee and it would serve Jason right for locking him in the cage. His business done, Dick jumped onto the couch, curled into a comfortable ball and waited.

Barely a couple of hours later Dick was woken up by a loud cursing. He watched in amusement as Jason tripped over himself to get ready for work. And then an anticipation when he was going out.

You made me do this, Little Wing, Dick thought glaring at Jason when he came back. You locked me in that cage and left me there.

As amusing as it was to watch Jason scramble to change, Dick regretted making him late some time after the door was closed and locked. Otherwise Jason could have had time to give him some food and fresh water.

He spend the day sleeping or wandering about. When it got around the time Jason would come back from work and he didn't Dick started to worry. Jason wouldn't left him here to starve, would he? Maybe something happened to him?

The hours ticked by as Dick anxiously lied before the front door, waiting. Eventually he got rewarded with footsteps, key in the lock and opening door.

Dick sat attentively and waited for Jason to notice him, which he did almost immediately. Dick got up and walked toward his Little Wing. He resolved to be nice to him. Jason didn't know it was him after all. But what Dick could do without being able to hug Jason? An impression of a cat did the trick apparently. Jason relaxed and even gave him food!

Dick eyed the brown mass distrustfully. How animals could even look, let alone eat it? Well... It didn't seem like Jason was going to give him something else, and he was hungry. It shouldn't be so bad, right?

Wrong.

It was worse than bad. It was disgusting.

He coughed and spat, trying to get the taste out of his mouth and tongue. Jason laughed, the little bastard. Dick wasn't in a charitable mood anymore. He was hungry and thirsty and pissed and the asshole whom was supposed to take care of him was laughing at his plight.

So it was only fair Dick wet another pair of his shoes. Jason yelled after him, calling him dick. Dick looked at Jason, unimpressed and flicked his tail, his approximation to giving a middle finger.

Hungry and just done with everything, Dick curled in his spot on the couch. Jason tried a few times to get him, but he growled and the man backed off.

Some time later Dick was woken up by heavenly smell. He practically inhaled a piece of cooked chicken dropped on his tail before his nose and lifted his head up to look for more. Jason looked contrite enough, sat at the other end of the couch and tossed another piece at him. Dick ate it with one swept of his tongue and crept closer. Jason kept giving him pieces of meat until Dick was draped over his lap, full and purring as his human rubbed gently through his fur.

Jason didn't do anything wrong by Dick by the time he went on patrol, so he decided to return the favor and made his business in actual toilet. That took some maneuvering, but even in his fox form Dick retained his grace and flexibility. Soon Dick was kneading Jason's pillow to a perfect mattress and went to sleep. Jason tried to remove him only once before giving up and lying next to him.

Jason woke up later for some reason, jostling Dick a little as he grumbled insults. Dick was confused for a moment, until he heard Tim and Damian in the other room.

Dick growled. No. He wasn't going with them. Here was safe and warm and weren't any dogs that wanted to eat him. No matter that Titus didn't meant to, Damian!

Jason stared at him, angrier by the second as the situation was explained to him. Dick grinned sheepishly at his Little Wing.

Jason yelled.

Dick had to act fast. He wanted to stay. But how to tell Jason that? Oh, Jason thought he was adorable when he rescued him. And he would want to keep Dick if he was adorable. Dick jumped on him and stated licking Jason all over his face. Jason didn't fight him as much as he could so it meant Dick was winning, right?


End file.
